Turkey in its war crimes, violations is killing peace in N Syria

At a time when the whole world is celebrating World Day of Peace, the Turkish state in turn violates all international human rights and conventions, and violates the borders between states and the principles of international peace agreed upon by the countries of the world, where murder, displacement, occupation, massacres and heinous war crimes are being committed today against the peoples of the north and eastern Syria.

The Turkish state topped the list of countries in violation of international human rights laws with its immoral attacks on Afrin and other areas in the north of Syria, and its violations against civilians on their land, where several international and local reports documented these violations and condemned the actions of the Turkish army and the terrorist mercenaries it supports in this war.

Hundreds of children, women and men killed on the border...

In the latest report of the Syrian Human Rights Observatory on Turkish army violations against Syrians at the border, published in November 2, 2018, 414 civilians, including 75 children, and dozens of women and elders were killed by Turkish gendarmes at the border as IDPs sought shelter away from the war going on. Those who survive the gendarmes' bullets are arrested, beaten and severely insulted by various white weapons and rifle butts and sticks.

Hawar News also documented the violations of the Turkish state on the border between 2018-2019 in Kobani, Girê Spi, Sere Kaniyê, Tirbe Spiye and Dêrik in northern Syria. The Turkish army killed the 6-year-old Sara girl with a sniper bullet in her head in 1-11-2018 in Girê Spi / Tel Abyad, and our correspondents were injured while covering the border situation and another civilian during that time.

Citizens working on their land or traveling through their villages in the areas adjacent to the Turkish border in northern Syria have been subjected to several violations, resulting in dozens injured and large areas of their land burned. In the border village of Tel Ceyhan, northwest of the town of Tirbe Spiye, residents of the Kurdish and Syriac Christian component were subjected to more than 10 violations against them within two years of indiscriminate shelling and shooting at the village and its church, and injuring the citizens working in their land.

In Batrzan villages north of Çilaxa town, Mulla Abbas village, Wakil Hasnak village, Tal Khatunk village north of Tirbe Spiye, Sermisakh village north of Rmaylan and villages on the banks of the Tigris River north and east of Dêrik, citizens are almost daily harassed and abused by the Turkish army while working in their land.

Afrin... 17 months of occupation: major war crimes and violations in Syria

The numbers of violations that emerge from the occupied city of Afrin, highlight the brutality of the Turkish state and its breaching of international conventions, making it the largest city where violations and war crimes in Syria have been committed since the start of the Syrian revolution to this day.

During the treacherous attack of the Turkish state with its air and ground weapons, and dozens of its mercenary and terrorist groups, on the people of Afrin and their land, more than 2,765 civilians lost their lives and got wounded as well as 5329 others arrested, including about 300 women and children, in addition to the arbitrary kidnapping of more than 2600 civilians, the fate of 1000 of them is unknown till now.

Afrin canton also witnessed the largest forced displacement in the region, displacing between 350-400 thousand civilians between the indigenous and displaced people, who took Afrin as a safe haven for them, for fear of further massacres against them by the Turkish army and terrorists from the Euphrates Shield mercenaries and the remains of ISIS and Jabhet al-Nusra.

The Turkish occupation carried out the largest demographic change in Syria against Afrin, where the proportion of Kurds shrank to less than 20% out of 95%, to settle-instead-the families of Ghouta, Daraa, Idlib and Hama, and hand them Turkish identification identities in order to change the features of the city and identity for their benefit. In addition to the transfer of the names of all cities, villages and public and strategic places in the canton from Kurdish to Turkish names, and raising the Turkish flag on them as a violation and other crime against the peoples of northern Syria.

Amnesty International revealed violations of the Turkish state and its mercenaries in Afrin in a detailed report issued in 2 August 2018, which explicitly described the Turkish state as the 'occupying' aggressor state, and in its report explained a wide range of abuses suffered by the people of Afrin: arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, confiscation of property and looting, which the Turkish armed forces have turned a blind eye to. Even worse, some of these groups, as well as the Turkish armed forces themselves, have even taken over schools, disrupting the education of thousands of children.

For its part, the Syrian Federation for Human Rights condemned the Turkish army's practices and violations, demanding putting pressure on Ankara to stop the construction of the separation wall around the city and its countryside, in addition to intervening to stop the killing and displacement, describing it as an "occupation" state which practices are contrary to the international covenants.

The Platform of Lawyers to Defend Afrin has also warned the crimes the Turkish occupation is committing, and stressed that 90% of the violations are in secret, calling on international bodies to form a fact-finding committee and access to Afrin. In addition to documenting the looting and sabotage of antiquities and the economy of the people of Afrin to Turkey's museums and factories, as another violation considered a war crime.

Terrorism, occupation and demographic change. Turkey's policy against the people of northern Syria

The Turkish state, with its support for the mercenary groups in Syria, continues to maintain the presence of chaos and terrorism in Syria, as a step to justify its interventions in the region or bazaar them in international forums in the service of its policy, after turning al-Shahba and Idlib into incubators of terrorism, it rushed to interfere, occupy and bring about demographic change aiming to extend its control through the army and mercenaries from the remnants of Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS.

As for the safe area raised by Turkey regarding northern Syria, the demographic change, forced displacement and actual occupation it has carried out in Jarablus, Azaz, Afrin, and al-Bab, it wants to repeat today under the safe zone in Manbij, Girê Spi and Serê Kaniyê, as a new war against the peoples of the region which fuel is the Syrian people themselves who fled to Turkey to escape the scourges of war.